For whatever reason, the NHL won’t make good decisions. It needs to win back the trust of sports fans by making wise and strategic moves. But it hasn’t done it, and the latest deed proves it won’t any time soon. Here’s my thoughts on the latest move by professional hockey.I flipped on my radio this morning to local sports talk as I embarked on some errands. Every morning I listen to my favorite morning host, Sean – one of the biggest hockey fans I’ve heard.
He had a grim, defeated tone to his voice today. He mirrored a child after another pet has died. The reason bloomed when his commentary went deeper, diving into talk about the NHL’s most recent mistake.
I got nervous. Not again, I thought. Please no more foolish ideas.
The league would hold another outdoor game featuring the Buffalo Sabers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Sure, that match-up intrigued me. Then I heard the game’s date. A decision, in my opinion, that competes for worst in corporate sports history. Sean seemed to agree.
The game will be played on Jan. 1.
“Wait, what?” I said.
At first I thought it was a joke, until Sean started to fume. Then I realized it was true.
“OH, COME ON!” I shouted with a hint of laughter.
“ARE THEY SERIOUS?”
On New Year’s Day, I guarantee very few people have hockey on the brain. Sidney Crosby or the Rose Bowl? New school or old school? In this case, people will probably stick with old school. They’ve done so for 105 years.
Of all days, why that one?
It’ll be great for the city of Buffalo and the 57,000 in attendance. Ratings, though, will again suffer. The game will compete against almost 12 straight hours of college football.
Hockey has no chance in this scenario.
Does the NHL honestly think people will turn down a Bowl Championship Series game, months and months in the making, to watch hockey players outside freezing their jocks off?
I know the 2003 outdoor game in Edmonton succeeded. It should’ve. It took place in Canada, the home of hockey. They shouldn’t expect the same in the United States, home of football. Especially on, arguably, football’s biggest day.
I don’t care if it has new rules to promote offense, or hi-tech new uniforms, hockey will lose. Football is number one in this country. Changing a game’s scenery or rules won’t knock the king off his throne.
Any other day and it’s genius. You have Sidney Crosby, the reigning Most Valuable Player. And on the other side you have the reigning President’s Trophy winner. What a battle. It could have brought people back on the hockey bandwagon, like Big Mac and Slammin’ Sammy’s 1998 home run chase did for baseball. This, no doubt, will be NHL hockey at its best.
And very few people will see it.
It’ll be another embarrassing moment that proves hockey, despite its drama and thrills, still lives in a deep, dark hole.
But come on, at least give it a chance to climb out.
4 replies on “Another self-inflicted NHL wound”
Not like FA I’m still not sold on the presentation, but the story has meat on it and you are completely right in your conclusion. It was a bird-brained idea and demonstrates that these NHL execs are either näive or just too arrogant to accept their place in the U.S. sports totem-pole.
question What could I have done to improve the presentation?
Just a feeling As I said, I liked your content too much to deny you my vote, but some stories roll off the tongue and others seem a little forced. It is just a question of my taste. Your writing was good, but I felt something was just missing for it to be a great piece of writing.
That is not to say it still isn’t one of the better pieces I’ve seen in here recently. I just wish Editorial comments would dissappear once the article gets published.
The more I’ve heard about this… the better idea I actually think it is. I look at it this way: On January 1, everybody will be home and watching TV, mostly football. Of course, the NHL isn’t going to beat any football game in ratings, and I they know that. Hell, they can’t even beat a dog show anymore. But they have a chance to get better ratings than they normally would just because so many more people will be watching TV, so that means millions more potenetial viewers. So even if some curious people tune in for a little while, the ratings points go up. The NHL and NBC is not trying to compete so much as ride the coattails of one of the best TV watching days of the year. If they buried this game in February, a few weeks after the Super Bowl, it would have no chance of getting anything, because nobody’s going to think to tune in. In the NHL world, this game will kill it’s normal US ratings.
Also, the Rose Bowl–the only BCS Bowl game being played that day–usually doesn’t start until 4 or 5 ET I believe, so hockey won’t interfere with anything major, maybe the Outback Bowl or the whatever bowl places the 5th place SEC team vs. the 8th place Big East team. The Bowls are so spread out now that there’s actually a small window that day to lure in some potential viewers. It’s a risk the NHL would be stupid not to take.